Cover page -- Halftitle page -- Title page -- Copyright page -- Title page -- Copyright page -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- TABLE OF CONTENTS -- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS -- LIST OF TABLES -- CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION -- CHAPTER I - ENDNOTES -- CHAPTER II EUROPEAN BACKGROUND, 1525-1874 -- Anabaptism and Early Migration -- The Prussian Mennonite Church -- Settlement in Russia -- Life in Russia -- Economic Development -- Education -- The Church -- CHAPTER II - ENDNOTES -- CHAPTER III IMMIGRATION TO AMERICA AND SETTLEMENT IN KANSAS -- Causes of Immigration -- Establishing New Communities -- The Local Church -- CHAPTER III - ENDNOTES -- CHAPTER IV THE LANGUAGE TRANSITION -- The Role of the German Language -- Facilitators of the Language Transition -- American Mennonites -- Western District Conference -- Sunday School and Christian Endeavor Society -- Clergy -- Education -- Periodicals -- Evidence of Transition -- Conclusion -- CHAPTER IV - ENDNOTES -- CHAPTER V THE AMERICANIZATION OF MENNONITE EDUCATION -- The Immigrant School -- Mennonite Parochial Schools -- The Americanization of Mennonite Schools -- The Response of the Church to Public Schools -- Conclusion -- CHAPTER V - ENDNOTES -- CHAPTER VI THE IMPACT OF AMERICAN REVIVALISM, MODERNISM, AND SECULARISM -- American Revivalism -- Protracted Meetings -- Prohibition -- Church Schisms -- Modernist-Fundamentalist Controversy -- Secularism -- Nonresistance -- Conclusion -- CHAPTER VI - ENDNOTES -- CHAPTER VII THE AMERICANIZATION OF CHURCH CUSTOMS -- Ordinances -- The Clerical Transition -- Conclusion -- CHAPTER VII - ENDNOTES -- CHAPTER VIII THE FINE ARTS: MENNONITE ARCHITECTURE AND MUSIC -- Church Architecture -- Church Music -- Conclusion -- CHAPTER VIII - ENDNOTES -- CHAPTER IX CONCLUSION -- CHAPTER IX - ENDNOTES -- BIBLIOGRAPHY

The congregation is a distinctly American religious structure, and is often overlooked in traditional studies of religion. But one cannot understand American religion without understanding the congregation. Volume 1: Portraits of Twelve Religious Communities chronicles the founding, growth, and development of congregations that represent the diverse and complex reality of American local religious cultures. The contributors explore multiple issues, from the fate of American Protestantism to the rise of charismatic revivalism. Volume 2: New Perspectives in the Study of Congregations builds upon those historical studies, and addresses three crucial questions: Where is the congregation located on the broader map of American cultural and religious life? What are congregations' distinctive qualities, tasks, and roles in American culture? And, what patterns of leadership characterize congregations in America?

Since its original release in 1939, Carl Schneider's The German Church on the American Frontier has been the premier published resource on the unique "Evangelischer Kirchenverein des Westens" (Evangelical Church Society of the West), 1840-66, which later assumed a wider denominational identity as the German Evangelical Synod of North America, the church of the Niebuhr family. Known eventually as the Evangelical Synod of North America, the group's ecumenical and irenic heritage contributed to mergers that resulted in the Evangelical and Reformed Church, 1934-1957, and thereafter in the United Church of Christ.

Assesses the current state of American Jewish life, drawing on the research and thinking of scholars from a variety of disciplines and diverse points of view.